Wu-Tang and Tony Starks

The Wu-Tang Clan established a hip-hop empire with street poetics, kung fu mythology, ingenious production and entrepreneurial savvy. The outfit’s rugged beats and top-notch MCing have taken the two-turntables-and-a-mike foundation of hip-hop to its grimiest, and arguably most artistic extreme.

A collective of relatives and close friends, the Wu-Tang Clan has its roots in the hostile housing projects of Staten Island, New York (also referred to as Shaolin in Wu lore). Cousins RZA and GZA, the Wu-Tang Clan’s forefathers, began collaborating as early as 1976 —when RZA was eight years old. As break dancing and freestyle circles sprang up all over New York City, RZA and GZA began writing rhymes and challenging other MCs to battle. During junior high school, RZA befriended Ghostface Killah, U-God, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, and Raekwon.

After the amazing success of Wu Tang, Ghostface like many of the group’s members has gone out on his own to and produced some unbelievable solo content. This is what separates the Wu Tang Clan from other super groups that decide to go into solo projects. From the beginning the RZA made it clear that any member was welcome to go out on their own and sign with any record label to satisfy each member’s solo artistic endeavors . Ghost ran with this and his first two studio albums “Ironman” and “Supreme Clientel” are considered to be two of the most highly revered solo debuts of any rapper or lyricist ever. In fact, his third solo project titled “Bullet Proof Wallets”, is said to be just as strong but unfortunately the rights to the samples on the album couldn’t be cleared.

Most recently he put out the sequel to “Twelve Ways To Die” aptly named “Twelve Days To Die II”. But outside from being considered one of the finest storytellers the rap game has ever seen, Ghostface has inspired a hilarious blog Big Ghost (written as if Ghost himself was writing it), had an all out verbal war with arguably the worst person in the world and what I imagine to be a life highlight for the man who has nicknamed himself Tony Stark aka Pretty Tone aka Ironman a guest role in the Ironman film. Now granted this scene was deleted from the end credits but he still shows up on IMDB so that’s what counts.